Should We Kid or Not?

Tension, consensus and surprising common ground converge when participants from disparate walks of life debate the question “Should we have kids?”

Should we kid or not guests
Series
Independent Lens
Premiere Date
November 14, 2019
Length
5 episodes x 8 minutes
Funding Initiative
Short-Form Open Call
Director

Maxine Trump

MAXINE TRUMPS's last feature documentary, “Musicwood”, was a New York Times Critics' Pick, a festival award-winner and played in theaters, on airlines and TV networks around the world. Maxine has directed both long and short documentaries for the TV networks Discovery, TNT, Sundance Channel, BBC, TLC, etc. She worked at the BBC in London for seven years Show more as a development executive for scripted comedy before emigrating to the USA, working as a TV commercial director and producer for eight years. She won BDA awards for work on numerous commercial projects for TV and agency clients, including AMC, National Geographic, PBS, BBC America, Animal Planet, Comedy Central, American Cancer Society, L'Oreal, Oreos, etc. Maxine is on the selection committee for DOC NYC and the Nantucket Film Festival; a Manhattan chapter leader of the non-profit film group Filmshop; the author of the documentary book "A Documentary Roadmap" released by Focal Press in Winter/Spring 2018; and a teacher of documentary filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. She holds an MFA from London Metropolitan University, lives in Brooklyn, NY and continues to direct her own feature documentaries as well as producing and editing for feature documentary clients. Show less

Producer

Dorottya Mathe

DOROTTYA MATHE is a New York based Producer from Hungary with nearly two decades of experience in the television and film industry. She enjoys collaborating with international cast and crew on eclectic projects for various mediums including slow-motion video installations for the Lincoln Center; dance-theatre-opera for BAC; non-profit documentary Show more about NYC‘s largest public art project – Sing for Hope: Pop-Up Pianos; retrospective music documentary on a garage-rock band The Fleshtones; indie fiction films such as The Independents, a modern folk ’n roll fable; Impossible Monsters, a psychological thriller. Dorottya has been a producing instructor for the Documentary Faculty at the New York Film Academy since 2010. Show less

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The Film

When confronted with life’s “pros and cons” list-making moments, some decisions are relatively flippant and superfluous. Others – like the decision to have children – require a whole lot more consideration, sparking boundless questions and passionate opinions. Not surprisingly, when proponents and opponents get together, complex conversations ensue; from climate change to personal autonomy, religious dictates to infertility, the exchanges are thick with personal ideals, family expectations, fears, hopes and inconsistencies. An atheist and Mormon meet toe-to-toe; a teen mom faces a 50-year-old IVF patient. Grab a ringside seat and watch the debates play out across genders and ages as sets of strangers grapple with the often unasked question, “Should we kid or not?”

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